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content at the deep layer differ from them on the soil surface.
INTRODUCTION This is considered to influence exhalation of radon and
thoron. Although many researchers have investigated the
The global average annual effective dose from natural behavior of radon in soil,69) there are few reports about the
radiation is 2.4 mSv.1) The effective doses from radon behavior of thoron in soil. Because the half-life of thoron is
(222Rn) and thoron (220Rn) and their decay products comprise shorter than that of radon, it is more difficult to estimate its
about 50% of this amount. There have been many reports exhalation rate. For this reason, an effective method for
published on the health effects of radon exposure.25) Radon measurement of thoron exhalation rate has not yet been
and thoron comes from soil, rocks, and building materials. established, and few data on the thoron exhalation rate are
The soil can be regarded as the main source. Emanation of available. If radon and thoron exhalation rates can be simul-
radon gas into the atmosphere is dependent on local ground taneously measured with one instrument, the transport behav-
surface and soil conditions. The exhalation rate of radon is iors of radon and thoron in soil can be considered. However,
one of the most important factors that influence indoor and there is little published data that present simultaneous field
outdoor radon concentrations. The half-life of radon is measurements of radon and thoron exhalation rates.
3.82 d and that of thoron is 55.6 s; it is therefore presumed We previously developed an instrument for the simulta-
that their generation points in soil are different. It is thought neous measurement of radon and thoron exhalation rates and
that radon and thoron are generated from the depth in soil used it to measure radon and thoron exhalation rates at some
and soil surface, respectively. The temperature and moisture typical Japanese geological sites.1015) In this study, we
measured radon and thoron exhalation rates in areas of
weathered acid rock in Hyogo and Aomori Prefectures and
*Corresponding author: Phone: +81-43-206-3104,
Fax: +81-43-206-4098, investigated the relationship between radon and thoron exha-
E-mail: tokonami@nirs.go.jp lation rates. Furthermore, we calculated theoretical radon
1
National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Research Center for Radiation exhalation rates in Kobe City (Hyogo Prefecture) by using
Protection, 4-9-1Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba 263-8555, Japan;
2
an equation proposed by UNSCEAR,1) where reported that
Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Institute of Radioisotope Research, 4-19-
the radon exhalation rate can be mathematically expressed as
1 Motoyamakita, Higashinada-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo 658-8558, Japan;
3
University of the Ryukyus, Faculty of Science, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, a function of the emanation coefficient, porosity, 226Ra
Okinawa 903-0213, Japan. concentration, soil density, and the effective diffusion coef-
doi:10.1269/jrr.08121 ficient. We examined the applicability of the equation pro-
posed by UNSCEAR for calculation of radon exhalation in Mesozoic era. The measurement points in Mutsu City and
rates by comparing our measured values with those calculated Higashidori Village were rhyolite of tertiary period in
by the UNSCEAR equation.1) Cenozoic era and granite of Jurassic period in Mesozoic era,
respectively. Kobe City has a moderate climate (annual aver-
MATERIALS AND METHODS age temperature of 17.4C), whereas Aomori Prefecture has
a cool climate (annual average temperature of 10.1C).
Study areas and measurement conditions Seven measurement points were selected in each area. In
The study areas (Fig. 1) were selected on the basis of Kobe City, five measurement points were within the grounds
surface geology. The surface geology of Japan can be cate- of the Kobe Pharmaceutical University, and two were in an
gorized into areas dominated by andesite, basalt, pyroclastic undisturbed area outside the university. All measurement
flows, sediments, and strata containing volcanic ash fall.1617) points in Aomori Prefecture were in the undisturbed area. At
The distribution of plutonic rocks (e.g., granite) and sedi- five of the seven measurement points (Point1, 2, 3, 4, and 6)
mentary rocks are about 67% in Japan.17) We focused on in Kobe City, measurements were taken in January, May,
areas of weathered acid rock (granite and rhyolite) and August, and November in order to observe seasonal variations.
selected two areas with different climates: Kobe City Measurements were taken twice (August and November) at
(3443N, 13517E) in Hyogo Prefecture, and Mutsu City the other two points (Point 5 and 7) in Kobe City. In Aomori
(4117N, 14112E) and Higashidori Village (4125N, Prefecture, only one set of measurements was taken at each
14127E) in Aomori Prefecture. Altitude of measurement location. In Kobe City, the day before measurements were
points in Kobe City and Aomori Prefecture were about 40 ~ taken in May was rainy, but it was fine or cloudy for the
90 m and about 10 ~ 100 m, respectively. The bedrock of all other measurements (including Aomori Prefecture) taken.
measurement points was weathered acidic rock. The mea- Because one of the aims of this study was to investigate sea-
surement point in Kobe City was granite of Mt. Rokko, and sonal variations of radon and thoron exhalation rates, all data
it was based on generating penetration of Cretaceous period (including the data measured in May) were used.
0.040 mBqm2s1cpm1).
We conducted a preliminary laboratory experiment to test
whether covering the MSZ during recording would affect the
influence of meteorological factors such as temperature,
atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity of the soil sur-
face. Analysis by t-test of the results of this experiment
clearly showed that meteorological influences were
unchanged whether or not the MSZ was covered during
measurement. The weathering granite soil was used in the
estimate of measurement error. Radon and thoron exhalation
rates of this sample were measured repeatedly several times
by MSZ. Average radon and thoron exhalation rates of this
sample were 20 mBqm2s1 and 3200 mBqm2s1, respec-
tively. In this result, the measurement errors (1) for radon
Fig. 2. Diagram of the system used for simultaneous in situ mea- and thoron exhalation rates were estimated to be 19% and
surement of radon and thoron exhalation rates from the ground. 6.3%, respectively.18) When radon and thoron exhalation
rates obtained by the MSZ were lower than that of detection
limit, these data were excluded in this study.
Measurement of radon and thoron exhalation rates
Radon and thoron exhalation rates were measured with an Measurement of the radon emanation coefficient
instrument (MSZ: Fig. 2) developed and described by Shimo According to UNSCEAR,1) the exhalation rate of radon can
et al.10) and Saegusa et al..11) We adopted the accumulation be mathematically expressed as a function of the emanation
method for our measurements. Because details of the MSZ coefficient, porosity, 226Ra concentration, soil density, and the
have been reported previously,1011) only an outline is pro- effective diffusion coefficient. If such parameters are measured
vided here. It is composed of the accumulation chamber or theoretically evaluated, the radon exhalation rate can be esti-
(skirt section) which covers the ground, scintillation detector mated by using the expression proposed by UNSCEAR.1)
with aluminized mylar sheet, light guide, photomultiplier Soil samples were dried (by the same procedure as that
tube, pulse counting part, scaler and timer. The area of large used for soil density and radium concentration measure-
acrylic board coated with a ZnS(Ag) scintillator is 1200 cm2. ments, as described below) and then packed roughly into a
The ZnS(Ag) scintillator is connected to a photomultiplier stainless steel tray (160 mm wide, 195 mm long, and 35 mm
tube with 6.3 cm diameter though a tapering lightguide. The in height) to a depth of 35 mm. To vary moisture content,
purpose of skirt section (13 l volume) is for collecting radon an atomizer was used to spray deionized water onto the soil
and thoron gases that exhaled from the ground surface. samples. In general, the moisture content was taken to be
Measurements were recorded over consecutive 30 s intervals liquid-phase weight divided by solid-phase weight. We took
during a total recording period of 30 minutes after setting it measurements for moisture contents ranging from absolutely
up on the surface of ground. The thoron exhalation rate ET dry to 40 wt% water. Soil samples were stirred until the
was obtained by the following formula; moisture in the sample was uniformly distributed and then
sealed in an accumulation chamber made of acrylic resin
ET = (N10 Nb) CFT , (1)
(6.7 l volume). After 24 h in the sealed accumulation chamber,
where N10 is the count rate 10 minutes after measurement start the radon concentration was measured. In this study, the
(cpm), Nb is the count rate of background (cpm), and CFT is the accumulation period was kept as short as possible so that the
conversion factor for 220Rn (18.1 3.2 mBqm2s1cpm1). moisture content did not change while the radon gas was accu-
Since the count rate of 220Rn and its decay product (216Po) mulating. Therefore, the difference of moisture content before
reaches equilibrium 7 8 minutes after starting measure- and after all experiments was small (less than 0.1 wt%). To
ment, the count rate of 10 minutes is used for N10. On the evaluate the dependence of the emanation coefficient on
other hand, the count rate of 222Rn and its decay products moisture content, it is important that the influence of mois-
(218Po and 214Po) adopts the count rate of 30 minutes after, ture content (relative humidity) on the response of measure-
in order to continue a gentle increase after subsequent ment device is insensitive (e.g., an apparatus using activated
10 minutes. The radon exhalation rate ER was obtained by charcoal should not be used). For this reason we used the
the following formula; Pylon model AB-5 portable radiation monitor and Pylon
model 300A scintillation cell (Pylon Electrics, Inc., Ottawa,
ER = (N30 N10) CFR , (2)
Canada). A quality assurance comparison of the results of
where N30 is the count rate 30 minutes after measurement radon concentration measurements with this device has been
start (cpm), and CFR is the conversion factor for 222Rn (0.521 performed by the Japanese National Institute of Radiological
Sciences and the German Physikalisch-Technische Bunde- mulation time for sampling (s). Aeq can then be calculated
sanstalt.19) In this result, the error to PTB was estimated because all other variable in equation (4) are known. Then,
within 5%.20) after determination of the soil parameters discussed below,
Soil samples were collected at each measurement point in the radon emanation coefficient (f) can be calculated from
Kobe City, with the exception of Point 4. The radon emana- equation (1).
tion coefficient (f) of each sample was calculated as follows:
AeqVa Estimation of soil parameters
f = , (3) Moisture content, dry bulk density, density, porosity, and
ARa M
concentration of 226Ra were measured as follows.
where Aeq is the equilibrium concentration of radon (Bqm3), (1) Volumetric water content
Va is the volume of accumulation chamber (m3), ARa is the Volumetric water content in soil samples was measured
radium concentration in soil samples (Bqkg1 dry), and M using a soil aqua-meter (DIK-691A-B1, Delta-T Devices,
is weight of the sample (kg). The radon emanation coeffi- Cambridge, England) at each exhalation rate measurement
cient can be determined from Aeq and ARa. We used the point. These measurements were taken during the radon
following procedure to determine Aeq. exhalation rate measurement. Because the sensor length is
Air sampling and measurements were performed as fol- 5 cm, we measured volumetric water content at a depth of
lows (see Fig. 3). First, a valve (V1) between the vacuum 5 cm in the soil. As the sensor signal is proportional to the
pump and scintillation cell was opened and the scintillation permittivity of the soil, the volumetric water content is mea-
cell was evacuated. The valve (V1) was then closed. Second, sured directly by this device.
a valve (V2) between the accumulation chamber and scintil- (2) Dry bulk density
lation cell was opened to allow the introduction of an air The dry bulk density b (gcm3) was calculated as fol-
sample into the scintillation cell. The valve (V3) of accumu- lows:
lation chamber was also opened simultaneously. The valve M
(V2) was then closed. Then, after 3.5 h, radon concentra- b = . (5)
VS
tions (At) were measured in the scintillation cell. While the
soil sample was sealed in the accumulation chamber, the where M (g) is the weight of the soil sample, and VS (cm3)
radon concentration in the chamber gradually increased, is the volume of the dry soil.
reaching equilibrium after about 30 d. In general, the growth (3) Density
curve for radon concentration can be expressed: The density (gcm3) of the soil sample was calculated
using the following procedure.21) First, the soil sample was
At = Aeq (1 e t ) , (4)
dried for 24 h at 105C. Second, after weighing an empty
where At is the concentration of radon measured at time t specific-gravity bottle (Wf), it was filled with water and
(Bqm3), is the decay constant of radon, and t is the accu- weighed (Wa). The water was then removed from the specific-
gravity bottle, and the bottle was dried. The bottle was then
approximately one-third filled with dry soil and weighed
(W). Finally, the remaining two-thirds of the bottle was filled
with water and it was placed in a vacuum desiccator and
evacuated. Because initially there were bubbles in the bottle,
the desiccator formed only a quasi-vacuum. This operation
was repeated until there were no bubbles. After one week,
the bottle was removed from the vacuum desiccator, filled
with water, and weighed (Wb). The unit of all W is gram. The
density of the soil was calculated as follows:
W Wf
= . (6)
(W W f ) + (Wa Wb )
(4) Porosity
Five soil samples were taken from a depth of 5 cm at each
measurement point. The porosity was estimated as follows:
b
= 1 . (7)
Fig. 3. Schematic of the experimental system used to evaluate the (5) 226Ra concentration in soil
emanation coefficient of radon. Measurements of rays emitted from nuclides of 226
Ra
were made by counting photons in the photoelectric peak 1.4. However, t-test of data from all measurement points in
channels of 352 keV for 214Pb and 609 keV for 214Bi, after Aomori Prefecture showed no significant difference in the
radioactive equilibrium of 226Ra with 214Pb and 214Bi had radon and thoron exhalation rates measured at Higashidori
been achieved. 228Ra was measured by counting photons in Village and Mutsu city (p > 0.05). Similarly, there was no
the photoelectric peak channel of 911 keV for 228Ac. Mea- significant difference between the exhalation rates measured
surement of radium concentrations in soil samples was as in Aomori Prefecture and those measured in Kobe City (p >
follows. First, the soil samples were enclosed in a cylindrical 0.05). The measurement points in Higashidori Village were
polypropylene container of 48 mm 55 mm (U8 container) all located within an area of 1 km radius, as was the case in
after drying for 24 h at 105C. The prepared soil sample was Kobe City. On the other hand, the measurement point of
then enclosed in an air-tight container for 40 d to allow Mutsu city was large area. Thus, we presumed that within
radioactive equilibrium between 226Ra and 222Rn to be each of these areas, the measurement points were in areas of
reached. Soil samples were then analyzed using a high-puri- the same bedrock. However, the maximum radon and thoron
ty germanium detector. The measurement time was 80000 s. exhalation rates in Higashidori Village differed by factors of
In this study, the average concentration of 214Pb and 214Bi 3.4 and 5.0, respectively. The CVs for radon and thoron
were used as the 226Ra concentration in the soil samples. exhalation rates in Higashidori Village were 63% and 69%,
respectively. Although the measurements in Higashidori
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Village were conducted within one day, there were large
variations of radon and thoron exhalation rates at the same
Radon and thoron exhalation rates in Kobe City measurement point. This suggests that underground struc-
The average ( standard deviation) of the radon and tures might have influenced the movement of soil radon in
thoron exhalation rates at the seven measuring points in Aomori Prefecture, as well as in Kobe City.
Kobe City were 12 6 and 1210 1110 mBqm2s1,
respectively (Table 1). These results are similar to those from Relationship between radon and thoron exhalation
other weathered granite soils (radon, 10 3 mBqm2s1; rates at each study site
thoron, 1290 260 mBqm2s1) reported by Hosoda et The ratio between the radon and thoron exhalation rates
al..22) The maximum average radon exhalation rate (17 can be estimated by a theoretical approach that assumes that
11 mBqm2s1) was measured at Point 6; the minimum (3 228
Ra and 226Ra contents in the soil are the same. We con-
1 mBqm2s1) was measured at Point 5. The maximum sidered a comparison of the measured ratio with the theoret-
average thoron exhalation rate was measured at Point 4 ical ratio derived from the following relationship would be
(2560 1940 mBqm2s1); the minimum was measured at useful. The ratio of the thoron exhalation rate J220 to the
Point 3 (640 640 mBqm2s1). The geological environ- radon exhalation rate J222 was estimated as follows:
ments at all measurement points were similar (weathered J 220 220 L220
granite soil of Mt. Rokko), but the exhalation rates differed = , (8)
considerably between them. This suggests that different sub- J 222 222 L222
surface structures may have influenced the exhalation rates. where is the decay constant (radon, 2.1 106 s1; thoron,
The largest coefficient of variation (CV) of the measured 0.012 s1), and L is the diffusion length (m), which was cal-
radon exhalation rates was at Point 3 (66%, Table 1) and the culated from the relationship between effective diffusion
smallest was at Point 7 (16%). The CVs for radon at other coefficient De and the decay constant.:
measurement points ranged between approximately 40%
De
and 60%. The largest CV for thoron exhalation rate was also L= . (9)
at Point 3 (100%), whereas that at Point 1 (22%) was the
smallest of all the measurement points. The effective diffusion coefficients of radon and thoron
were presumed to be approximately equal because the only
Radon and thoron exhalation rates in Aomori Prefecture important difference in their physical characteristics is their
Average radon and thoron exhalation rates in Mutsu City mass number (radon, 222; thoron, 220). Assuming the
(Table 2) were 13 8 and 750 460 mBqm2s1, respectively: porosity of dry soil was 0.30, the effective diffusion coeffi-
the corresponding values in Higashidori Village were 17 11 cient was 3.0 106 m2s1.25) Moreover, this value decreased
and 1040 710 mBqm2s1. The bedrock at Mutsu city is as moisture content increased. By using these values of De
rhyolite and that at Higashidori Village is granite. Granite and and in Eq. (9), the diffusion lengths of radon and thoron
rhyolite are both classified as acid rocks, according to their were estimated to be 120 and 1.6 cm, respectively. Eq. (8)
SiO2 content (over 66 wt%).2324) Comparison of the radon and implies that the thoron exhalation rate from the soil surface
thoron exhalation rates at the two locations in Aomori to the atmosphere is about 76 times that of radon.
Prefecture showed that both were higher in Higashidori The average of Tn/Rn ratios for all the data in Kobe City
Village: radon by a factor of 1.3 and thoron by a factor of and Aomori Prefecture were 144 174 and 57 9, respec-
tively (Tables 1 and 2). These values are 1.9 and 0.75 times but the average 228Ra/226Ra ratios for Kobe City and Aomori
higher than the theoretical values for Kobe City and Aomori Prefecture were almost the same (1.3 and 1.5, respectively;
Prefecture, respectively. The thoron exhalation rates in Kobe data not shown).
City tended to be higher than those in Aomori Prefecture, The relationship between radon and thoron exhalation
Fig. 4. Relationship between radon and thoron exhalation rates measured in Kobe City. (Left, excluding points 1 and 2; right,
Points 1 and 2 only)
deeper than this might not affect thoron exhalation from soil. measured exhalation rate. The radon exhalation rate J from
Consequently, the correlation between radon and the thoron radium-in-soil concentration ARa was calculated as follows:1)
exhalation rates may be unrecognizable in areas where there
J = De f (1 ) ARa , (10)
are artificial underground structures. Many researchers have
reported that radon exhalation rate is influenced by various where f is the soil emanation coefficient of radon, is the
environmental factors, such as moisture content, differential soil particle density (kgm3), and De is the effective diffu-
pressure, and soil grain size.18,2634) In addition to these influ- sion coefficient of radon (m2s1). The relationship between
ences, artificial materials laid under ground might affect the effective diffusion coefficient De and moisture saturation
exhalation rates in urban areas. m was reported by Rogers and Nielson25) as:
Table 3. Parameter values used for the calculation of the radon exhalation rate. In this table, dry bulk density, soil density, porosity,
and 226Ra concentrations in soil were the averages for each measurement point. Because the effective diffusion coefficient and ema-
nation coefficient changed with soil water content (depending on soil conditions), these data are shown for each measurement date.
226
Point Dry bulk density Density Porosity Moisture Diffusion Ra concentration Emanation Calculated value of Meas./
(gcm3) (gcm3) saturation coefficient in soil (Bqkg1dry) coefficient exhalation rate Cal.
(m2s1) (mBqm2s1)
0.259 4.3 106 0.35 11 1.32
0.462 2.0 10 6 0.36 8 0.54
Point 1 1.06 0.19 2.67 0.06 0.61 0.07 10.1 0.4
0.121 7.1 10 6 0.33 13 0.37
0.172 1.7 106 0.35 8 1.46
0.504 1.8 10 6
0.33 14 0.58
0.257 4.4 106 0.31 20 1.11
Point 2 1.01 0.11 2.63 0.03 0.60 0.04 20.6 0.7
0.147 6.5 106 0.27 22 1.63
0.238 1.9 106 0.31 14 0.88
0.803 2.8 10 6 0.39 14 0.50
0.612 1.7 10 6 0.39 33 0.37
0.703 8.8 10 6 0.39 24 0.95
Point 3 1.52 0.14 2.67 0.03 0.43 0.05 29.7 1.4
0.209 6.4 10 6 0.39 64 0.41
0.523 3.1 106 0.40 46 0.23
0.784 6.7 10 6
0.38 20 0.15
0.257 6.0 106 0.33 31 0.19
Point 5 1.59 0.09 2.63 0.02 0.40 0.03 17.1 0.5
0.230 6.3 10 6 0.33 32 0.09
0.429 3.4 106 0.30 35 0.94
0.272 5.3 10 6 0.30 44 1.00
0.173 6.9 106 0.30 51 0.12
Point 6 1.47 0.21 2.68 0.01 0.45 0.08 29.7 0.6
0.171 6.9 106 0.30 51 0.13
0.431 3.2 10 6 0.31 35 1.09
0.427 3.2 106 0.31 35 0.67
0.467 3.0 10 6 0.35 26 0.56
Point 7 1.48 0.09 2.64 0.01 0.44 0.03 20.1 0.6
0.223 6.1 106 0.32 35 0.33
Note: Soil samples were not taken at Point 4.
erature. A comparison of measured and calculated radon the measured values (p < 0.05). This result suggested that
exhalation rates (average for each point) is shown in Fig. 6. the artificial structures such as underground pipelines may
The t-test results for each measurement point show no sig- affect path of radon. Therefore, we considered that the mea-
nificant difference between the measured and calculated val- sured values were lower than the calculated ones. The
ues for Points 1 and 2 (p > 0.05). However, the calculated UNSCEAR equation should not be applied where there are
values for Points 3, 5, 6, and 7 are significantly higher than artificial structures such as underground pipelines.
Figure 7 shows the frequency distribution for the ratio of
the measured exhalation rate to the calculated exhalation
rate. The average of this ratio was 0.65, and the measured
values tended to be lower than the calculated values. As can
be seen in Eq. (11), the effective diffusion coefficient for
radon can be expressed in terms of porosity and moisture
saturation. Moreover, many researchers have reported that
water content is a dominant influence on the radon emana-
tion coefficient.3536) It is known that exhalation rate is
affected not only by porosity and water content but also by
environmental factors such as soil temperature, humidity,
and differential pressure.33) In dry soil, the measured exha-
lation rate agreed well with the value calculated using Eq.
(11). For the typically wet soils of Japan, the errors in cal-
culations using Eq. (11) are large, and the calculated values
are higher than the measured ones.37) Therefore, the radon
exhalation rate estimated by substituting Eq. (11) into the
UNSCEAR equation (Eq. (10)) may give erroneously high
values. Temperature dependency of the effective diffusion
coefficient was reported by Schery and Wasiolek38) and
Zhuo et al..39) In particular, Zhuo et al. reported a range of
effective diffusion coefficient of 0.991.07 corresponding to
Fig. 6. Comparison of the measured and calculated radon exhala- soil temperatures from 1 to +28C; they estimated the vari-
tion rates for Kobe City data. The measured values are the average ation to be less than 10% in typical Japanese environ-
values for all the data at each measurement point. ments.39) Thus, we considered that the effect of soil temper-
ature on the radon exhalation rate was small in our
calculation. Moreover, Iskandar et al. reported that the ema-
nation coefficient is affected by both soil temperature and
water content.40) When we used the temperature data of
Zhuo et al.,39) the radon emanation coefficients increased by
up to 42%. Although UNSCEAR reported that Eq. (10) is
valid for dry soil, the exhalation rate we estimated from Eq.
(10) did not agree well with the measured value, even under
dry conditions.
CONCLUSIONS
ground structures. These results suggest that the selection of concentration levels in different geological formations in
measurement locations is very important. Therefore, the DeirAbu-Said District, Irbid, Jordan. Radiat. Meas. 41: 703
simultaneous measurement of radon and thoron exhalation 707.
rates is important as the data can be used to determine the 8. Iskandar, D., Iida, T., Yamazawa, H., Moriizumi, J., Koarashi,
J., Yamasoto, K., Yamasaki, K., Shimo, M., Tsujimoto, T.,
validity of a measuring location. We also examined the
Ishikawa, S., Fukuda, M. and Kojima, H. (2005) The transport
application of an equation proposed by UNSCEAR for cal-
mechanisms of Rn in soil at Tateishi as an anomaly spot in
culation of radon exhalation rates by comparing our mea- Japan. Appl. Radiat. Isotopes 63: 401408.
sured values with those calculated by the UNSCEAR meth- 9. Iskandar, D., Yamazawa, H., Yamasoto, K., Ohta, M.,
od. The measured values tended to be lower than the Koarashi, J., Moriizumi, J. and Iida, T. (2007) Diurnal and
calculated values and the average ratio of measured value to seasonal variations of 222Rn concentration profile in soil. Jpn.
calculated value was 0.65. J. Health Phys. 42: 98104.
We concluded that the UNSCEAR equation is applicable 10. Shimo, M., Saegusa, J., Tsujimoto, T., Yamasaki, K. and
under a controlled environment (temperature, humidity, Yamauchi, T. (1994) Development of In-Situ type radon/
etc.), but it is not applicable in an uncontrolled environment, thoron exhalation rate measuring system. Bulletin of Gifu
or where there are artificial underground structures that may College of Medical Technology 10: 1926 (in Japanese).
11. Saegusa, J., Yamasaki, K., Tsujimoto, T., Yamauchi, T. and
influence the transportation of radon in soil.
Shimo, M. (1996) Development of an Apparatus for Measuring
Ground Exhalation Rates of 222Rn and 220Rn. Environ. Int. 22:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS S483S490.
12. Yamasaki, K., Saegusa, J., Tsujimoto, Shimo, M., Iida, T.,
The authors are grateful to Dr. Hideki Kimura of the Kojima, H., Nishikawa, T., Morishima, H. and Abe, S. (1996)
Aomori Prefectural Nuclear Power Safety Center, as well as A mysterious spot on the outdoor concentration of radon iso-
Mr. Hiroyuki Kawakami of the Higashidori Village office topes. Environ. Int. 22: S205S213.
and Mr. Michio Ito of the Mutsu City office, for their help 13. Hosoda, M., Shimo, M., Sugino, M., Furukawa, M. and Fukushi,
in carrying out the measurements in Aomori Prefecture. This M. (2004) In situ measurements of radon and thoron exhala-
work has been partially supported by the Agency for Natural tion rates and their geological interpretation. Jpn. J. Health
Resources and Energy, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Phys. 39: 206214 (in Japanese with English abstract).
Industry (METI), Japan. 14. Hosoda, M., Fukushi, M., Sugino, M., Furukawa, M. and
Shimo, M. (2005) The natural radiation in Miyake-jima of Izu
islands, Japan. Jpn. J. Health Phys. 40: 365371 (in Japanese
REFERENCES
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